Travel to Cyprus

Archive for October 18th, 2010

Cyprus Tennis – reviews day 1 of intensive tennis course – 18 October 2010 – Tennis in Cyprus

So day 1.  We turned up at Aphrodite Hills early in the morning all revved up and ready to go. Also, a bit late because as usual I’d forgotten about the roadworks by my house.  Oops.  No superjuice this morning. Plans for a healthy breakfast got thrown to one side. A quick Actimel in the car was all we managed.

Now, as an experienced player, I was looking to improve my game significantly and really improve on my weaknesses as well as upping my game overall, including tactics.  My friend is a relative beginner and was looking to improve her game, but wasn’t sure how much she could learn in 5 days and had never done mental matchplay before.

Jay coaching Naheed on Day 1

Now for my hour, we first of all focused on playing a  short ball from the baseline, aimed at getting me to put more spin on the ball and hit it higher.  It was definitely hard at first judging it right – a lot of balls went in the net and some went far to high and far.  After a while, I  got the hang of it.  According to my coach, Wyn Lewis, some of the professionals do this kind of drill for half an hour every day.  I like d that – I’m a professional already.  I wish!

Next, Wyn placed some plastic strips at the back of the court, in the middle to form goal posts and we then played for a while with me aiming the ball between the posts and Wyn hitting a variety of different shots at me.  He increased the power and difficulty and we had one hell of a lot of fun. 

Cally hits a forehand Day 1

Then we played “killer” and believe me it kills you off. Wyn fed in one ball after another very fast one way out to the left, one way out to the right and had me running from one end of the court to the other very fast and I have to say it took me a while to get the hang of that and my face went very red – it was also 27 degrees.  I finished the day, very happy and buzzing!  Also, quite tired.

Running for the ball

My friend was amazed at her first lesson. Listening to music and playing at the same time was quite a revelation to her. Fortunately, I’d given her the Inner Game of Tennis to read  so she’d already started it before and had a slight understanding of what to expect.  Also, I videoed her a bit and when she looked at it, she realised what the caoch Jay had been saying – follow through.  She had great fun with Jay and Cally, who was the other person taking part in the course.  It was a great start and my friend is really looking forward to tomorrow.

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